Magna Carta History

Talking Points

The story of Magna Carta begins at Runnymede in England in 1215, but it does not end there. It is a story that runs eight hundred years forward and is still unfolding. It is the story of our rule of law tradition and of how our American system of government is derived from our English legal heritage.

• The document that became known as Magna • A would-be peace treaty between the king and the Carta was first issued in June 1215. It resulted rebellious nobles, the 1215 charter did not survive its year from negotiations, culminating in a meeting at of issue. Pope Innocent III annulled the charter within 10 Runnymede, between King John and rebellious weeks of its issuance. In the midst of virtual civil war, King English aristocrats on the brink of civil war. John suddenly died in October 1216. The charter was then reissued on behalf of the new king, John’s nine-year-old son, • The 1215 charter was handwritten in Latin Henry III. This Magna Carta was substantially revised and on a single piece of sheepskin parchment shortened to about 2,500 words. A second reissue was made approximately 18 inches square—about the in 1217 and a third in 1225. The 1225 issue was the version same surface area as a 27" computer monitor incorporated into English law in 1297. or TV screen. Its text runs less than 4,000 words—somewhat shorter than that of the • “Magna Carta” means “Great Charter” in Latin. After it original 1787 U.S. Constitution. was first revised in 1216, a separate charter of the forests, spun off and expanded from the 1215 document, was issued. • The last line of the 1215 charter refers to a To differentiate the first charter from the second, the former specific place and time of its issue: “in the became known, in 1218, as Magna Carta Libertatum (Great meadow that is called Runnymede between Charter of Liberties) or, simply, Magna Carta. Windsor and Staines on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our [King • There are multiple Magna Carta manuscripts that can claim John’s] reign.” Runnymede represented to be “originals.” Why this is so is a matter of historical neutral turf between parties in conflict. circumstance, tradition, and scholarly conventions. In addition to the four 1215 first issues, there survive one • The most persistent misconception about from 1216 and four more each from 1217, 1225, and 1297. Magna Carta is that King John “signed” the Just two of these seventeen are outside England, both document at Runnymede in 1215. Rather, to dating to 1297. They are in the national capitals of Australia signify his assent and granting of the charter (Canberra) and the United States—the latter is publicly to his subjects, the king’s seal was affixed, displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. after the Runnymede meeting, to more than 40 documents produced by his royal chancery • After 1300, Magna Carta was not reissued—physically or writing office. They were then distributed produced and disseminated across the realm—but to counties throughout the realm of England. simply “confirmed.” English kings confirmed Magna Carta dozens of times in the centuries following the thirteenth, corroborating its status as an exemplary written charter of good governance and recognition of the lawful liberties of English subjects.

6 Law Day 2015 Planning Guide • © 2015 American Bar Association • The 1215 issue of Magna Carta from Lincoln Cathedral became the first charter to travel outside the United Kingdom in 1939, when it came to the United States for display at the New York World’s Fair and then remained in Washington, D.C., for safekeeping throughout World War II.

• Magna Carta has been cited in over 170 U.S. Supreme Court opinions, according to American University law professor Stephen Wermiel, who analyzed 224 years of U.S. Reports of Supreme Court decisions. Of these 170 cases, 28% concern due process of law; 13%, trial by jury; 8% concern how Magna Carta influenced American constitutionalism; 6% each treat antitrust matters and habeas corpus; 5% concern other civil rights • In the seventeenth century, English jurist Edward Coke interpreted and liberties; and 4% each treat Magna Carta to be part of an “ancient Constitution” that preserved cruel and unusual punishment the rights of English subjects, protected by a representative and excessive fines. parliament, against the claims of absolutist monarchs. By the • Unlike no other historical document, eighteenth century, the uncodified British Constitution was seen Magna Carta symbolizes our deep- as including not only key texts from the prior century (1628 Petition rooted tradition of constitutional of Right, authored by Coke; Habeas Corpus Act 1679; 1689 English governance and its associated “rule Bill of Rights), but also Magna Carta itself—invoked to trace back of law” values. These are commonly the deep roots of British constitutionalism. understood to mean that “no ruler is • The eighteenth-century English jurist William Blackstone developed above the law” and, often, the granting a numbering convention for Magna Carta, which we follow today. By of political and legal rights in writing. tradition, the various short sections are commonly called “chapters.” Rule of law is often contrasted with The 1215 Magna Carta has 63 chapters and the shorter 1225, just 37. rule that is capricious, unprincipled, The famous, oft-cited clause that begins “No free man shall be seized and inconstant. or imprisoned,” which appears in all issues, is numbered chapter 39 in the 1215 Magna Carta and 29 in the abbreviated 1225 issue.

1215 A group of English barons rebels against King John in the meadow at Runnymede, England, and persuades him to affix his seal to a document called the “Charter of Liberties.” The articles established a committee of 25 barons to oversee the king’s adherence to the document’s provisions. In all, there are 63 chapters. An unknown number of copies are sent to officials. Three months later, 1423 Pope Innocent III declares the document invalid. Magna Carta is confirmed by 1217 King Henry VI Following the First Barons’ War and the 1297 following decades Treaty of Lamberth, the Charter of Liberties King Edward I reissues the of successive (known in Latin as carta libertatum) is reissued. 1225 version of Magna Carta. generations The 42 chapters are expanded to 47 chapters. Constitutionally, this version petitioning the During the same year, a fragment of the is the most significant. It is English throne Charter of Liberties serves as the basis for still included today, in part, to reaffirm the a second charter, the Charter of the Forest. in English statutes. document.

1216 1225 1354 1628 King John dies, and his 9-year-old King Henry III is Under King Edward III, Sir Edward Coke, son, Henry III, ascends to the throne called upon to Magna Carta’s benefits the first respected of England. In order to avert a war reaffirm the Charter are extended from jurist to write between Henry’s supporters and of 1217, now known “free [men]” to “[men], seriously about usurper Prince Louis’s supporters, as Magna Carta. of whatever estate or Magna Carta, drafts the charter is reissued, sealed This document has condition he may be,” the Petition of Right, by a papal representative, Guala 37 chapters and is and the phrases “due which becomes, Bicchieri, and the king’s regent. the first version of process of law” for along with Magna It substantially revises the 1215 the charter to be “lawful judgment of his Carta, part of the document. This charter has 42 entered into peers or the law of the uncodified British chapters instead of 63. English law. land” are introduced. Constitution.

8 Law Day 2015 Planning Guide • © 2015 American Bar Association 1687 William Penn 1791 1969 publishes The Thomas Paine, 1941 Chapters 1, 9, Excellent Privilege in his book, Magna Carta and 29 are the of Liberty and Rights of Man, is secured at only three of 2015 Property: being the argues that Fort Knox, in the 1225 issue The world birth-right of the Magna Carta 1829 Kentucky, along chapters from commemorates free-born subjects does not Chapter 26 of with the Magna Carta that Magna Carta’s of England, which guarantee rights Magna Carta U.S. Declaration have not been 800th anniversary contained the first because it was becomes the first of Independence repealed under with special copy of Magna not a properly chapter to be and Constitution, subsequent exhibits, Carta printed in the ratified written repealed under for most of statutes of programs, American colonies. constitution. English law. World War II. English law. and events.

1759 1816 1939 1965 2007 Sir William John Whittaker, an An original Magna United States The only surviving Blackstone creates English bookbinder, Carta travels to Postal Service 1297 copy of Magna a numbering produces a deluxe the United States issues stamps Carta in private hands system that is gold-blocked edition for the first time as in honor of the is sold for $21.3 million applied to the of Magna Carta in part of the New 750th anniversary to American David clauses of Magna celebration of its York World’s Fair. of Magna Carta. Rubenstein at auction. Carta, which is 600th anniversary It becomes part of a still used today. (one year later). permanent exhibit at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.

“ The Magna Carta is one of the great symbols, “ Magna Charta is such a fellow, that he will to all English-speaking peoples, of liberty have no sovereign.” within the law.” Edward Coke (Second Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, 1642) Archibald MacLeish (“Deposit of Magna Carta,” November 28, 1939) “ In this country, written constitutions were “ We must never cease to proclaim in fearless deemed essential to protect the rights tones the great principles of freedom and the and liberties of the people against the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of encroachments of power delegated to their the English-speaking world and which through governments, and the provisions of Magna Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Charta were incorporated into Bills of Rights. Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common They were limitations upon all the powers law find their most famous expression in the of government, legislative as well as American Declaration of Independence.” executive and judicial.” Winston Churchill (“Sinews of Peace,” March 5, 1946) Stanley Matthews (Opinion of the Court, Hurtado v. California, 1884) “ Magna Carta … is often claimed to be the cornerstone of English liberty, law and democracy, and its legacy has been its enduring worldwide influence… . It has become an icon for freedom and democracy throughout the world.” UNESCO (Memory of the World inscription, 2009)

“ Centuries ago, when kings, emperors, and warlords reigned over much of the world, it was the English who first spelled out the rights and liberties of man in the Magna Carta.” Barack Obama (Speech to UK Parliament, May 25, 2011)

“ Our later freedoms were gestating in the [Great] Charter. Establish the rule of law— the idea that the authorities can’t make up the rules as they go along— and everything else will eventually follow.” Daniel Hannan (“Magna Carta is the birthright of all English-speakers,” June 16, 2014)

10 Law Day 2015 Planning Guide • © 2015 American Bar Association “ The Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights, and the “ Magna Carta has had a profound [English] Bill of Rights are documents which are held effect on popular culture. King John, in veneration by democrats throughout the world.” his discontented barons, and the Great Nelson Mandela (Rivonia Trial Speech Charter remain well-known even as from the Dock, April 20, 1964) other aspects of English medieval “ Magna Charta as a great instrument of liberty was history have faded into comparative the creation not only of its own age, but of later ages obscurity. Magna Carta continues that strove for the idea that government is something to transcend its times.” Carolyn Harris (University of Toronto, greater than the naked exercise of power.” prepared for Insights on Law & Society, Alfred H. Knight (The Life of the Law: The People American Bar Association, 2014) and Cases That Have Shaped Our Society, From King Alfred to Rodney King, 1996, p. 25) “ Magna Carta was for England, and “ The first eight amendments to our Federal later for people around the world, Constitution, our explicit Bill of Rights, owes what President Lyndon Johnson its parentage to Magna Carta; and Americans said Lexington and Concord were regard the enforcement of those amendments for the American Revolution and as the Supreme Court’s most important and Selma was for the American civil demanding responsibility.” rights movement—a turning point— William Brennan (1985 Rededication where “history and fate meet at a Speech at ABA Memorial at Runnymede) single time, in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s “ Magna Carta decreed that no man would unending search for freedom.” be imprisoned contrary to the law of the land. Roger Gregory, (Judge, Fourth Circuit Court Important as the principle was, the Barons at of Appeals, prepared for Insights on Law & Runnymede prescribed no specific legal process to Society, American Bar Association, 2014) enforce it. Holdsworth tells us, however, that gradually “ Magna Carta is a shining symbol of the writ of habeas corpus became the means by our shared legal heritage and of the which the promise of Magna Carta was fulfilled. ” rule of law as a foundation for freedom Anthony M. Kennedy (Opinion of the Court, Boumedienne v. Bush, 2008) and human rights. Today, the story of Magna Carta we should tell is not merely “ Magna Carta has risen above its uncertain of Runnymede in 1215, but of the Great beginnings. It has been a crucial influence Charter’s enduring significance in the on the development of the rule of law, eight hundred years since.” first in England and then around the world.” William C. Hubbard, 2014–2015 ABA Sandra Day O’Connor (Magna Carta President (Magna Carta: The Foundation and the Rule of Law, 2014, p. xiv) of Freedom 1215–2015, 2014, p. 10)